Entertainment

If any other web service had easily recruited a foam warrior league, a geek looking for love and a tribute AC/DC band from its user base, we would find it hard to believe. But when Craigslist did so while putting together season three of its web documentary series, we weren't surprised.

The characteristically quirky classifieds site has been profiling interesting listings since it launched Craigslist TV in 2010. On Thursday, the series' third season will kick off with a deep look into foam warrior recruitment.

Following a league of foam warriors from audition to debut battle (complete with fake packets of blood), the episode is one of about 15 in the season. Production company Brownstone Entertainment has put together more than 40 similar web episodes for Craigslist since the series premiere, and, according to executive producer Bob Gillan, casting has never been a problem.

"I am convinced that there are endless amounts of people who are looking for something you've never heard about before," he says.

A simple opt-in check box on LA Craigslist posting forms has yielded profile subjects such as a stunt man looking for a girl who will set him on fire (literally). Gillan says that about 1,000 people click the opt-in box every day while posting a listing on the site.

When one of these listings catches the producers' eyes, they call its author into their offices for a filmed interview that takes place on what the production team refers to as "the Craigslist couch." This season, every preliminary couch interview resulted in an episode.

While each of these episodes is fully funded by Craigslist, the organization claims it doesn't think of the show as a marketing effort.

"Over the past decade we've been approached by scads of people at networks, production houses and the like to do a Craigslist TV show," explains a Craigslist spokesperson. "Ultimately, and after much thoughtful consideration, we decided this was something we'd like to do ourselves."

As non-existent as the marketing department at Craigslist is, the show is an excellent example of branded entertainment. The Craigslist users who are featured in the series have interesting quirks, but — aside from the occasional battle — they are relatively normal. The pool of visible Craigslist users is no longer restricted to the "Craigslist killer" who was making headlines shortly before the web series's 2010 debut.

"You look at Craigslist and you have an idea of what Craigslist does, but you look at this series and you realize, oh, she's like me. Or oh, he's like me," Gillan says.

If a show about Craigslist was indeed an inevitability (and from what we've seen, it was), Craigslist was smart to control its message from the start. Cumulatively the episodes have been seen about 6 million times, and the producers are currently in discussions with networks about making the Craigslist documentaries into a television series.

Check out the exclusive first look of Craigslist TV's series 3 web premiere below.

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